I Just Can’t With These CHANEL Cotton Pads

Oh, luxury beauty items. Some have truly incredible components to them that carry legitimate effectiveness and results. For the most part, though? Cheesy, showy, and unnecessary. These CHANEL cotton pads are definitely the latter. The technical product name is “Le Cotton”, but I refuse to go there.

I originally saw these on one of my all-time fave places to shop for high-quality beauty: Violet Grey. What is usually a goldmine of perfectly curated products quickly became a silly, bougie experience the moment I stumbled upon these. What on EARTH do these pads do to be retailed @ $20/100 count? FIVE DOLLARS A PAD?

“Exquisitely soft, redesigned tri-layer pads feature an outer lining made from delicate, hand-picked cotton. The inner filling is composed of lightly entwined elastic fibers for an ultra-plush feel. Each highly absorbent, lint-free pad is generously sized and delicately embossed with the Chanel logo. Ideal for use with Chanel cleansers, lotions and toning treatments.”

I’m all for beautiful copy on a product page, but all I got from this was “CHANEL logo”, which I suppose could be enough for some people. Can’t you just get a badass compact, though? Cotton pads literally go in the trash. The TRASH!

Additionally, these pads boast a “Japanese design”. I wholeheartedly, 100% understand the hype behind Japanese cosmetics and tools – it’s how (actually Japanese) brands like Hakuhodo rely on their excellent craftsmanship and material selection to produce their $100+ brushes.

What I don’t particularly get, though, is advertising it through a Western perspective. Creepy orientalism aside, Japanese cotton pads are the LAST thing beauty brands should be expecting their consumers to pay a premium for. After all, you can snag yourself a pack of 100+ pads for around $6 online or at your local Asian beauty shop. They’re also organic, unrefined, and unbleached.

What’s “Japanese” about these again, CHANEL? Ya shit is stark-white bleached. I truly do not care if the cotton is hand-picked. Does anyone?

Thankfully, I am not alone in feeling terribly weirded out by these. Upon further research, I found articles by The Huffington Post and New York Daily News regarding these overpriced, silly pads:

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Do they work? Probably. They’re literally cotton pads.

Are they better than others out there? Highly, truly doubtful. My personal favorites are by Nature Republic – for around 4 bucks, you get 80 pads composed of 5 easy-to-separate layers that are optimal for nearly any product. I use one layer at a time, making this an even bigger value @ 80 x 5 = 400 applications, which is roughly 1¢ a pad.

We all know I [beep]ing LOVE high-end, designer shit. I’ll be the first person to admit it. I’m also enough of a self-proclaimed beauty expert & researcher to know that these are corny as hell.

If you’re itching to buy something from the brand, save your coin and get better cotton pads at a way lower price and opt for a beautiful blush or lipstick – the formulas are just as stunning as the packaging, and you won’t feel like a FOOL every time you’re throwing a CC-embossed piece of cotton away.